My Farewell Car" - Reo the Fifth, signed R.E. Olds (Leslie's Weekly, Jan 11 1912)
The pattern
This still is filed under Price-anchoring offer.
Define
A higher reference number is shown first so the real price reads as a concession, not as a starting bid.
Mechanism
People judge a price against the first number they see. The anchor must be a real comparison or it collapses.
Verdict
We have a credible reference the buyer will accept
Why it works
The whole page is built on a scarcity that is reputational rather than commercial: not a limited run but a limited career, which makes the model itself the last of something. Signing it as the designer and writing every claim in the first person converts advertising assertions into personal undertakings, and the specifics he chooses, the crushing machine instead of a hammer, the analysed steel, are the kind a man volunteers about his own work. The price is then defended by explaining where the money was not spent, single chassis, own factory, small selling expense, so the low figure reads as engineering rather than cheapness. The warning that the price may rise adds urgency without a fake deadline.
Steal this when
Use this when a founder with a long visible track record is putting out a definitive version of their work and can sign for it personally. It is also the right structure whenever you need to justify an unusually low price without cheapening the product, by itemising the costs you removed.